★土環系專題演講103.2.19(星期三)/講題：Next wave of biotechnologies, Digital RT-PCR (dRT-PCR) and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS): Solutions for the myths of recent emerging RNA viral outbreaks/歡迎參加

Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences

Special Seminar

“Next wave of biotechnologies, Digital RT-PCR (dRT-PCR) and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS): Solutions for the myths of recent emerging RNA viral outbreaks”

Presented by:

Dr. Huo-Shu Houng,

Retired Research Microbiologist,

Division of Viral Diseases, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Wednesday, February 19, 2014, 1:30pm-3pm

Auditorium 10D07 - Agricultural and Environmental Science Building

Nucleic acid-based diagnostics and sequencing are the fundamental tools for virology researchers to study and handle the recent emergent outbreaks caused by RNA viruses.  However, there are times when novel or newly emergent viral sequences are not readily available to implement immediate diagnostics and sequencing protocols. This can cause researchers or even government official anxiety and uncertainty over the possibility of virus present might cause serious implication to general public, such as recent events of avian H7N9 and rabies outbreaks in Asia.  Digital PCR (dPCR) is a new and complementary approach for detection and quantification of viruses present at levels below the limit of detection of conventional molecular methods. Basically, it’s a nano-scale PCR by large number partitions of each single conventional PCR sample into nano-liter PCR setups and readouts.  One of the main benefits of digital PCR is that it offers increased sensitivity— dependent only on the sample volume used which can be scaled up till robust readout is obtainable—and greater precision at low virus concentrations.  So far, all the published dPCR applications were limited to double stranded cDNA detections mostly via real-time TaqMan protocols.  It has been developed and demonstrated that dPCR could be further expanded into dRT-PCR technologies for mRNA or RNA virus researches.  Besides the simple end-point real-time dRT-PCR readouts, it is also feasible to utilize this newly developed dRT-PCR to accomplished ultra-depth high throughput Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to shed the lights how the recent avian H7N9 virus crosses the host barrier and expresses anti-viral drug resistance in human.